Pedal GAS- are these decent or am I just wasting my money?

Dave_Mc · May 2014

Hi everyone,

Not sure I can fight this GAS for bass pedals much longer… ) I’ve tried a bunch of my guitar pedals and they sort of range from “That’s not too bad, I reckon I could get away with that,” to “Ewwww that’s horrible!” )

Cheaper is better, as long as it’s not garbage- it needs to sound good and not break if I look at it funny (though absolutely bomb-proof reliability isn’t needed as it’s only for home use, at least at the moment). I don’t use pedals all that much, and don’t need tons of bells and whistles (I normally just set and forget), which is why I don’t want to totally break the bank with them.

I think I want a fairly saturated fuzz/distortion, an envelope filter for funky stuff, and an octave.

I was thinking about the EHX Bass Big Muff- I already have a Biyang (guitar) fuzz, which as far as I’m aware is more or less a Muff clone, and it sounded pretty good but the bass was a bit wooly on it and I’m hoping the bass version might help with that.

For the other two I was thinking of the Bassballs and the Octave Multiplexer (both EHX).

Are there any other good-sounding, reliable, reasonably-priced options which might sound better for a similar amount of money (£40-£50)? Or anything I’m missing? I’m not too well up on bass kit so there may well be good but reasonably-priced manufacturers I’m not aware of. Palmer does an octave for a bit more than the EHX one but I don’t know anything about it. It also does Bass OD and Fuzz pedals, but again, I’m not familiar with them. I also spotted the EHX Bass Blogger but I didn’t really like its tone from the clips, the OD was a bit subtle and the fuzz not really subtle enough (plus I preferred the tone of the big muff for the really saturated fuzz stuff). I’m aware of Behringer but I think that’s maybe cheaping out too much, even for me…

Dave_Mc · May 2014

Bonus GAS question: I noticed Thomann was selling some Harley Benton bass pedals (which appear to be rebranded Beta Aivins, word on the net is that they’re Boss clones, or at least sort of based on Boss pedals) for a price (£15-£20 each) which might be worth a punt, unless they’re total garbage. I was looking at the bass overdrive (ODB-3 clone-ish), bass limiter (LMB-3 clone-ish) and bass EQ (GEB-7 clone-ish). Obviously if they’re utterly terrible then there’s no point as it’s just a waste of money, but if they’re half decent at all, they might be worth a try for a laugh. I can only get them from Thomann at that cheap price, so I kind of need to put them in alongside another order to get the free postage to make it worth my while (which is why I’m considering getting so much stuff at once

) )

Dave_Mc · May 2014

Regarding the EQ, I see they’re also selling an Artec Bass EQ with an in-built tuner as well for about £15 more… word on the net seems to be it’s pretty quiet (whereas I think the Boss ones have the rep of being a bit noisy, and I assume the HB/BA clone won’t be any different), and while I don’t expect the tuner to be amazing, it doesn’t have to be as I have a more accurate tuner already for any setup work. Just if it’s good enough to save me from having to fiddle with an extra tuner to check I’m basically in tune for playing, assuming the EQ part is as good as the Harley Benton/Beta Aivin one, it might be worth a try. The Artec one has a few extra bands, but each seems to have a few frequency bands which the other one doesn’t have so I’m not sure which would be more useful for bass.

Thanks in advance for your help

chrispy108 · May 2014

I don't know any of the pedals you're looking at I'm afraid, but I loves my Digitech Bass Driver, which is £32 on Thomann. Goes from a bit of amp style grind, up to a pretty heavy distortion.

I know @ICBM loves his Zoom B3, but depends how you feel about multi-fx? Would seem a good idea if you just want something to play about with?

Dave_Mc · May 2014

Thanks

Yeah, not sure about multi-fx... I'm always concerned they won't sound as good as separate pedals. Same with digital pedals (at least for overdrive and the like, for delay etc. it's fine). Just I already have enough guitar pedals that I'm sort of wary that they may already sound better than either a digital (but bass-orientated) or multi-fx overdrive will... Also my amp has a tube preamp (far as i'm aware), so I sort of suspect (maybe wrongly) that analogue pedals might sound better with that, for boosting etc. as well.

I'll keep it in mind, though. I have a couple of those x-series pedals for guitar and they're pretty decent- the delay especially. The chorus is a bit digital-sounding, though (which is why I'm a bit wary about the bass driver).

UnclePsychosis · May 2014

If I were you I'd seriously consider getting a Zoom B3.

Dave_Mc · May 2014

Yeah, I hear you.

)

Thing is, I already have a bunch of guitar pedals (for modulation and the like) which I can use with bass. It's only really a couple of bass pedals that I'd really need, and I'd kind of want them to sound good. I don't use effects that much so a couple of good-sounding ones are of more use to me than a ton of mediocre ones. Though I might be being unfair to multi-fx there.

ICBM · May 2014

I've A/B'd my B3 with my real analogue fuzz and distortion pedals, and the real pedals do sound better... just. If you could quantify it, maybe 5% better - just noticeable in isolation. But they're also noisier, and in a mix the difference disappears.

Interestingly I don't think the G3 sounds as good, and I don't know why yet.

4string · May 2014

Going to +1 the B3. I don't have a lot of exposure to individual bass effects, so came to the B3 with a 'what can I get out this that is usable...' attitude. The answer for me is lots. I am using the SVT emulation almost all the time I play through my TC Electronics BH250 (though this a great sounding amp on its own). It cuts through the load drummer and guitarist I rehearse with. The various over drives work well enough and there are some exotic bass synth effects that I am desperately trying to find a use for :-) Worth considering if you have the funds.

fretmeister · May 2014

MXR bass envelope filter is awesome. Far better than the ehx

Dave_Mc · May 2014

^ Yeah I came across the MXR pedals and their video demos sounded awesome (though I wasn't as fond of their od and fuzz pedals). Problem is they're far more expensive...

) You're talking ~£130 (I think) instead of more like £40-£50 for the EHX stuff.

ICBM said:

I've A/B'd my B3 with my real analogue fuzz and distortion pedals, and the real pedals do sound better... just. If you could quantify it, maybe 5% better - just noticeable in isolation. But they're also noisier, and in a mix the difference disappears.

Interestingly I don't think the G3 sounds as good, and I don't know why yet.

Thanks. Yeah, that's kind of my concern. I already have a bunch of guitar pedals which can do double duty if I really need them (modulation and delays etc.), and I suspect they'd likely sound slightly better than the multifx, too. It's only really the dirt where I need a bass-orientated pedal. I don't currently have an envelope filter or octave so that's why I'm looking at them too. I'm just not sure that, when I already have a bunch of pedals and only need a couple, a multifx is really the way to go.

4string said:

Going to +1 the B3. I don't have a lot of exposure to individual bass effects, so came to the B3 with a 'what can I get out this that is usable...' attitude. The answer for me is lots. I am using the SVT emulation almost all the time I play through my TC Electronics BH250 (though this a great sounding amp on its own). It cuts through the load drummer and guitarist I rehearse with. The various over drives work well enough and there are some exotic bass synth effects that I am desperately trying to find a use for :-) Worth considering if you have the funds.

Thanks. I think from what I've read online that my amp already does a pretty decent SVT-type tone- it's a Genz Benz Streamliner 600 (I should've listed my current gear, I had the thread ready to go and then it wouldn't all fit in the one post and I just got sick of it and gave up

) ).

chrispy108 · May 2014

If you're just looking for a pedal or two for funny bass noises, then get the B3.

The bassballs is a very limited thing, and I don't know how the Octave Multiplier is with bass, the EHX website makes no mention of bass on it.

The B3 gets you a few envelope filters, a few octaves, and a load of cool synths.

Even if you don't touch the dirt or the amps, it still pays for itself and earns its place.

Dave_Mc · May 2014

Thanks

I asked this question on another forum as well and the (er, one) reply I got said the bassballs wasn't that great any more, and that the EHX octave multiplier might not work how I want (there's a vid on the EHX site where it's used with bass too as far as I'm aware). So I'm wondering about them, now. Will likely hold off on those, just in case.

He said the digitech synth bass wah was pretty good, and the price is pretty cheap. Digital, as far as I'm aware, so not sure about that. But it does seem to have a much bigger range of tones than the bassballs. And at ~£30 it's not going to be the end of the world anyway.

The B3 seems to be £110 on Thomann... I can get that "pedal or two" for less than that, lol. And which, according to ICBM, will likely sound (at least a bit) better.

I'm probably a bit anti-multifx because I know I don't use effects all that much (so a few good-sounding ones which I will use are more useful to me than millions of mediocre ones), and while I'm not anti-tons-of-knobs, I do tend to set and forget at the same time, and a multi-fx with tons of menus etc. isn't normally that helpful in that respect.

I realise this is starting to turn into that Fry/Futurama meme "Shut up and take my money!" (or more like "Shut up and let me waste my money!")

)

ThePrettyDamned · May 2014

The Digitech synth wah sounds great on bass - as in the guitar version. I've never tried the bass one, but with a muff and synth wah, I got a great Muse esque sound

monquixote · May 2014

I used to use the Bassballs and the Bass Big Muff in my old band.

The Bass Big Muff is a russian muff circuit with two extra modes. One which does a bass boost and the other which does a clean blend. The latter is the most useful thing because it allows you to get the Muse type sound which is clean bass mixed with fuzz.

The Bass Balls isn't an envelope filter it's a synthy filter with a built in fuzz.

It's not that great on clean bass and the built in fuzz sounds a bit weak, but combine it with the bass big muff and it sounds fucking epic, for huge fuzzy synth goodness.

chrispy108 · May 2014

I had a digitech bass synth wah, and I liked it a lot. I did this quick demo ages ago:

Seriously read the Zoom B3 manual, I know what you mean about multi-fx, but this isn't a load of shit sounds, and it's really easy to use.

Dave_Mc · May 2014

ThePrettyDamned said:

The Digitech synth wah sounds great on bass - as in the guitar version. I've never tried the bass one, but with a muff and synth wah, I got a great Muse esque sound

Thanks. The bass one's a bit cheaper

) If one worked well with both guitar and bass, that'd be a bonus. But whether the bass one works better with guitar or the guitar one better with bass, I dunno...

)

monquixote said:

I used to use the Bassballs and the Bass Big Muff in my old band.

The Bass Big Muff is a russian muff circuit with two extra modes. One which does a bass boost and the other which does a clean blend. The latter is the most useful thing because it allows you to get the Muse type sound which is clean bass mixed with fuzz.

The Bass Balls isn't an envelope filter it's a synthy filter with a built in fuzz.
It's not that great on clean bass and the built in fuzz sounds a bit weak, but combine it with the bass big muff and it sounds fucking epic, for huge fuzzy synth goodness.

Thanks

Yeah that's what I've heard about the bass big muff- more or less a green russian muff with those extra modes, as you said.

Thanks for the info about the BB too.

chrispy108 said:

I had a digitech bass synth wah, and I liked it a lot. I did this quick demo ages ago: Seriously read the Zoom B3 manual, I know what you mean about multi-fx, but this isn't a load of shit sounds, and it's really easy to use.

Thanks, I'll check out the demo. And yeah it's not really to do with how easy it is to use, I kind of know what I'm like- even with single pedals I tend to set and forget, let alone twiddling multi-fx...

)

EDIT: LOL yeah that sounds nuts.

) Yeah that's the kind of nonsense I want. Admittedly, in the clips I heard of the BassBalls, it was also the kind of silly noise I wanted. I get the feeling the BB is a one-trick pony, whereas the Digitech is much more versatile- but whether the BB does its sound better than the Digitech, I dunno.

Though if I did get the digitech would I be able to stop laughing long enough to actually play anything? Serious concern

)

ThePrettyDamned · May 2014

I doubt it, but making your bass sound like it's backing a porno is the best thing you can do with one, so... Yeah, do it

chrispy108 · May 2014

The digitech does octave down too, so two birds in one pedal for you?

Don't let the price put you off, it's well built and sounds good. There was one in the Muse guys rig for ages. It's an inexpensive pedal, not a cheap one.

Just cos the multi has knobs, you can still set and forget them... With the B3 you could just set it up as three pedals, each with its own footswitch, screen showing settings and control knobs, and never touch the patch stuff. It's like having three pedals in a row, except each can be one of a 100.

IanSavage · May 2014

I've only ever really used dirt and chorus on bass - for the former, I swear by the Boss ODB3 (has the clean blend function like the Muff and will do frankly outrageous levels of gain). You'd get one for thirty or forty quid secondhand easily.

ThePrettyDamned · May 2014

chrispy108;237570" said:
The digitech does octave down too, so two birds in one pedal for you?

Don't let the price put you off, it's well built and sounds good. There was one in the Muse guys rig for ages. It's an inexpensive pedal, not a cheap one.

Just cos the multi has knobs, you can still set and forget them...

With the B3 you could just set it up as three pedals, each with its own footswitch, screen showing settings and control knobs, and never touch the patch stuff. It's like having three pedals in a row, except each can be one of a 100.

It's an inexpensive pedal, not a cheap one.

Wisdom awarded for those words!

ICBM · May 2014

chrispy108 said:
Just cos the multi has knobs, you can still set and forget them... With the B3 you could just set it up as three pedals, each with its own footswitch, screen showing settings and control knobs, and never touch the patch stuff. It's like having three pedals in a row, except each can be one of a 100.

That's exactly how I use it. For band stuff it's set to Squeak (Rat), Bass Muff, and Bassman (only used if I'm not using an amp with a valve overdrive section), and I never use the patch mode at all.

The only real annoyance is that to get to the tuner you need to hold down the middle button (Bass Muff) which means that you have a second or so of loud hiss as the effect comes on before the circuit senses that you're holding it down and switches to mute.

Dave_Mc · May 2014

ThePrettyDamned said:

I doubt it, but making your bass sound like it's backing a porno is the best thing you can do with one, so... Yeah, do it

LOL

chrispy108 said:

The digitech does octave down too, so two birds in one pedal for you?

Don't let the price put you off, it's well built and sounds good. There was one in the Muse guys rig for ages. It's an inexpensive pedal, not a cheap one.

Just cos the multi has knobs, you can still set and forget them... With the B3 you could just set it up as three pedals, each with its own footswitch, screen showing settings and control knobs, and never touch the patch stuff. It's like having three pedals in a row, except each can be one of a 100.

Excellent, thanks. Yeah I know they're well-built, it's more the (possibly slightly digital) sound I'm more concerned about. But yeah killing two birds with one stone would be nice (the octave and synth thing). And for £32 it's not like I'm going to go too far wrong.

And yeah that's a good point about the multi-fx. I'll definitely keep it in mind, I'll head over to the zoom site to get the manual when i get round to it, and before i order anything.

IanSavage said:

I've only ever really used dirt and chorus on bass - for the former, I swear by the Boss ODB3 (has the clean blend function like the Muff and will do frankly outrageous levels of gain). You'd get one for thirty or forty quid secondhand easily.

Thanks. Yeah I noticed thomann had the price on the ODB3 down to £55 or something yesterday- everywhere else seemed to be selling it for £80+. However, if the beta aivin/harley benton is a clone (or at least, close enough), it's still half that price- and I'm not 100% on the clips I've heard. I like them enough to pay £20 for one, but not sure about £55 (or worse, £80!).

ICBM said:

chrispy108 said:
Just cos the multi has knobs, you can still set and forget them... With the B3 you could just set it up as three pedals, each with its own footswitch, screen showing settings and control knobs, and never touch the patch stuff. It's like having three pedals in a row, except each can be one of a 100.

That's exactly how I use it. For band stuff it's set to Squeak (Rat), Bass Muff, and Bassman (only used if I'm not using an amp with a valve overdrive section), and I never use the patch mode at all.

The only real annoyance is that to get to the tuner you need to hold down the middle button (Bass Muff) which means that you have a second or so of loud hiss as the effect comes on before the circuit senses that you're holding it down and switches to mute.

Thanks. Yeah I already have that mooer clone of the rat- tried it with bass and it sounded pretty good. I'd probably use it with guitar, though since it sounds even better on guitar.

That's kind of one of the reasons I'm slightly iffy on the multifx thing, I may well already have half (maybe a slight exaggeration) the pedals it models!

UnclePsychosis · May 2014

If you've already got lots of guitar ODs then buy a Boss LS2---or some other splitter pedal---and then use that to blend in some clean bass sound. That way you're not limiting yourself to bass specific pedals.

I hated MultiFX before I bought my B3, by the way. Its genuinely only very slightly more complex than having single pedals if you ask me

Dave_Mc · May 2014

^ Not sure how I missed your post earlier today, sorry!

That's a very interesting point regarding the LS2- I genuinely hadn't thought of that, and that sounds like a good idea which is definitely worth considering. I was looking at bass pedals with the clean blend, as you said, getting a pedal which'll let me blend any pedal I have may well be more useful. Assuming the guitar pedals I have would sound as good as the bass-orientated pedals when run like that (which is a big assumption). But certainly a couple of my guitar OD/dist/fuzz pedals actually sounded pretty good through bass even without the clean blend thing. I'll have a think about that, thanks for the idea

I had a look at the Zoom B3 manual yesterday. It does look pretty good. My only concern is, I had a look at the pedals which it models, and by my reckoning I have about a third of them- either the thing that's being modelled, a clone/glorified clone, or something else which'll do the same job (for example, they count the different delays as different effects when my digidelay can do 4 or 5 of them). That doesn't sound like that much, but for most of the others it's either variations on the same thing where I'd only need one, or things which I more or less know I'd never use.

So that being the case, I dunno about the multi-fx thing- all I really "need" are the bass big muff and an envelope/synth filter. I'd really just be getting those other couple of cheaper pedals for a bit of lulz as they're so cheap.

Granted I don't have any bass amp modelling currently. How does it sound through "proper" amps?

UnclePsychosis · May 2014

Haven't tried mine through a proper amp, sorry!

If literally all you want is distortion and envelope filter then I'd buy an LS2 and a filter (although personally I'd skip the filter because I have never found a use for one

).

For what its worth I've found that my Fuzz Factory clone, my RAT, and my NYC Muff all sound good with the bass / LS2 combo.

Dave_Mc · May 2014

No worries

And thanks for the info about your guitar pedals which sound good with the LS2.

Found one snag with the LS2 idea- it's ~£75. Which is almost exactly the same amount of money as the bass big muff and the harley benton cheapo odb3 clone combined (actually a little more).

) I already have that biyang big muff clone, so maybe with the LS2 it may sound as good as the bass big muff- but based on my other biyang clones it's liable to break if I look at it funny (no joke... I had like 3 of them and a failure rate approaching 100%... including the replacements. The muff clone I currently have is the replacement for the first one which died

) Don't want to buy the LS2 and then have the Biyang fuzz die the next day due to murphy's law...). Plus if it doesn't sound as good as the bass-orientated pedals... plus it's the more sensible (or at least less fun) idea.

)

Also no-one seems to make a cheapo clone of the LS2, either- even Behringer (not that I trust Behringer stuff to be built well, but for a fraction of the price just to see if it did what I wanted, it would be worth it).

Those filters sound nuts. Pretty sure I want one of those. That of course doesn't mean I'd ever find a use for one, either.

)

Also the darn Harley Benton LMB-3 clone is out of stock until June.

)

ICBM · May 2014

The B3 has clean blend on most of the dirt effects too (I think - at least on the ones I use most) so that gives it a bit of an advantage too - it's not that much more expensive than an LS-2!

UnclePsychosis · May 2014

Second hand Ls2? I paid £40 for mine.

Dave_Mc · May 2014

That's true

)

Well, at least I'm in no rush since that other pedal is now out of stock. I'll try to find some clips of the B3 tomorrow to see how it sounds.

chrispy108 · May 2014

Dave_Mc said:

I had a look at the Zoom B3 manual yesterday. It does look pretty good. My only concern is, I had a look at the pedals which it models, and by my reckoning I have about a third of them- either the thing that's being modelled, a clone/glorified clone, or something else which'll do the same job (for example, they count the different delays as different effects when my digidelay can do 4 or 5 of them). That doesn't sound like that much, but for most of the others it's either variations on the same thing where I'd only need one, or things which I more or less know I'd never use.

So that being the case, I dunno about the multi-fx thing- all I really "need" are the bass big muff and an envelope/synth filter. I'd really just be getting those other couple of cheaper pedals for a bit of lulz as they're so cheap.

Granted I don't have any bass amp modelling currently. How does it sound through "proper" amps?

If you want funny noises, I guarantee you'll like the synth options on the B3, in which case it'd cost you way more than £120 to assemble. The filters/synths on there can do way more than a cheap envelope filter can.

If you've got any chance of gigging later on, then you'll appreciate the noise gate/compressors and having the amp modelling as a backup/for shit soundmen.

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Pedal GAS- are these decent or am I just wasting my money?

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